Episode
American Experience: Command and Control
Overview
An account of an incident at a Titan II missile complex in Damascus, Ark., in 1980 that almost caused the explosion of a ballistic missile carrying a nuclear warhead 600 times more powerful than the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. The near-calamity was kicked off when a socket fell from the wrench of an airman performing maintenance in a Titan II silo and punctured the missile, releasing a stream of highly explosive rocket fuel.
Details
- Series
- American Experience
- Season
- Season 29
- Episode
- Episode 1
- Air date
- 2017-01-10
- Runtime
- 55 min
Episode context
Command and Control is Episode 1 in Season 29 of American Experience. It aired on 2017-01-10. The runtime is 55 min.
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More episodes from this season
Episode 3: The Race Underground
The dramatic story of the country's first subway.
Episode 4: Oklahoma City
On April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh, a former soldier deeply influenced by literature and ideas of the radical right, killed 168, and injured 675 others.
Episode 5: Ruby Ridge
A riveting account of the event that helped give rise to the modern American militia movement.
Episode 6: The Great War: Part 1
Part 1 of 3. President Woodrow Wilson vowed to keep the U.S. out of World War I after hostilities erupted in Europe in August 1914. It was a promise he kept until 1917, when the Germans resumed "unrestricted submarine warfare"— a policy it had started and then stopped in 1915 — and began sinking U.S. ships. An intercepted telegram also showed Germany trying to convince Japan and Mexico to declare war on America.
Episode 7: The Great War: Part 2
Part 2 of 3. America's entry into World War I is recalled, including the breathtaking speed of mobilization and the profound transformations required for America to play a central role in the conflict.
Episode 8: The Great War: Part 3
Part 3 of 3. In the fall of 1918: a major American offensive that could bring a swift end to the war, a lost U.S. battalion surrounded by German forces, a deadly flu epidemic on the homefront.